The World Bank advisor to the GCC Secretariat General has announced that construction of the US$15.5bn railway network, which would link all six GCC countries, is expected to commence in late 2014
According to Reuters, Dr Ramiz Al-Assar said the detailed engineering and design work for the project will be completed by early 2014. An authority to oversee the project is reportedly being set up.
The GCC railway project, that would link Oman in the south to Kuwait in the north through the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, has been scheduled for completion in 2018.
?The contract to study a proposal for a new causeway linking Saudi Arabia with Bahrain, that would be part of the GCC rail project, is expected to be awarded next month. The study would complete next year,? said Al-Assar.
Earlier this year, the Bahraini transport minister had announced that two international firms were conducting feasibility studies for the proposed railway project.
The UAE and Saudi Arabian governments had also reported that they have begun construction work on their railway projects that would be included in the GCC railway network. Oman?s ministry of transport and communications has said that it has started preliminary design work on its portion of the project, Reuters reported.
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